Computer graphics techniques wherein graphic objects are generated in a graphics processor and rendered on a computer display are known in the art. More particularly, computer systems and methods have been developed to generate three dimensional objects defined in three dimensional space so that views of three dimensional objects from different viewing angles can be rendered on a two dimensional computer display. Techniques for projecting three dimensional objects onto a view plane are discussed, for example, in Section 1.4 of Fundamentals of Three Dimensional Computer Graphics by Alan Watt, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Mass., 1989. Moreover, computer graphic animation techniques can be used to generate and render three dimensional objects on a two dimensional viewing screen wherein the three dimensional objects appear to move in three-dimensions.
The animation techniques discussed above may lack a desired level of realism. In response, techniques have been developed to map a two dimensional image such as a photograph onto a three dimensional surface. The two dimensional image may be distorted, however, when mapped onto the three dimensional surface thus reducing the realism of the images generated thereby.
Accordingly, there continues to exist a need in the art for improved computer methods, systems, and program products which can generate and render realistic images which can move in three dimensional space.